Celebrating Darwin's 209th birthday!

Today is Charles Darwin's 209^th birthday.  There is no better way to celebrate this event than to spend some time in the place that made him famous!

We left the western most part of Isabella island and dropped anchor near Rabida island and its red-colored beaches. 

 We walked up a small hill, providing pretty views 

and an opportunity to see the Galapagos cacti, and the birds that feed on it up close: 

This one is not a cactus finch – it is a ground finch that uses the water drops in the cactus flowers as their main source of water.  This is particularly important this year, with the rainy season being so late.  We did see some of the trees starting to get green leaves however, which is a hopeful sign that there is enough moisture in the air for the greening process to start at last.  

The trail then led along a brackish pond that used to be the home of a large colony of pink flamingos, but those had to move out when it was taking over by male sea lions who fouled it.

Along the beach, and on the lava cliffs that line it are many pelicans, who seemed to enjoy the place as much as we did.

A dip in the water was a welcome relief from the heat! The water on this side is a lot warmer.  We probably would not have needed the wet suits to snorkel, but they also protect nicely from the sun.  The snorkeling was again amazing.  This time it was the quantity and diversity of fishes that made it special.

The fish came in all sizes, shapes and colors.

Some swam in groups, some individually.

The color and pattern variations were endless.

There were huge schools of fishes of all shapes, and colors

This one is eating algae from a rock and showing off his colors.  The one below also shows one of the different types of starfish on the bottom.

I think this one was my favorite

Until this happened:

This shark was about 6-8 feet long and swam right under me.
I also like the starfish in the background.

During lunch we traveled to Santa Cruz island, where the Darwin Tortoise center is.  But that's for tomorrow.

Today, we dropped anchor by a small cove near a place called "dragon hill", because of the many land iguanas that live there.  We learned about the fine adaptation that happens from island to island, and sometimes even from cove to cove.

For instance, this marine iguana has slightly different coloring (notice the greenish spikes) and, more importantly, is the only marine iguana that will eat vegetation on land, which is why we found him sitting on a bed of ice plants - it only happens in this particular cove.

Also, the cactus on this island grow very tall, and the "trunk" is very spiky, because there are so many land iguanas that eat them - this was not true where we stopped this morning, because the area we were in did not have iguanas.  Here, the trunk has been cleaned of the spikes, so that the iguanas can reach up to the juicy paddles.

Above is a little lizard that has nothing to do with the story, but is cute.  The cacti are starting to bloom and we saw many of the islands only polinators - the Galapagos bumble bee - busily doing their job.

 There were many migratory birds around, from this blue heron (maybe i'll see him around lake Meahagh this summer??).  He was standing by the ocean,

but we saw many others by a little brackish pond (we were hoping to see pink flamingos there too, but they were not around.  We were told that we will see many on the last day)

Upon returning to the ship, we were treated to a magnificent sunset that lit the entire sky on fire.